Lara: Wednesday, June 28
Today, I felt very privileged to see the progress of the exhibition through the lens of the stakeholder meeting! Seeing a detailed framework of the foundational narratives of the exhibit, as well as the initial design concepts for the aesthetic components of display and lighting, made me realize, even more viscerally, how many moving parts are involved in developing an exhibition of this magnitude.
Especially at the beginning of the meeting, when Kate Quinn displayed a slide with a calendar detailing the progress and end-dates of multiple projects throughout the museum, it hit me how much work is planned and undertaken to both develop and maintain the museum's gallery space across the institution for years in the future. I can't yet imagine the full logistics involved in the running of all of these operations, let alone the entire organization itself, but I feel I have gained a more visceral understanding (and sympathy) for the limitations of the institution and appreciation for the breadth of coordination involved in performing all of these operations, seemingly simultaneously.
Later, during Dr. Zuberi's overview of the narrative of the exhibition, I understood more clearly the intent and purpose of certain themes and threads of the future exhibition, especially the highlighting of continental and international connections of the collections. From conversations earlier in the day, I was having difficulty trying to visualize how the exhibit was to negotiate discussing the continental connections of the objects (through form, material and function) while still portraying each collection's individual cultural legacy. After the presentation, I understood more clearly that the vision was to highlight similarities and differences equally, and start "fluid conversations about cultures and people," which is obviously long overdue in the mainstream, popular discourse about Africa.
What I came away from the stakeholder meeting was a greater sense of the vision (both physical and conceptual) of the exhibition, but one thing I did not have a strong impression of was how the exhibition intended to scale up its presence outside of the immediate walls of the institution. The discussion of the online course and utilization by academic engagement for UPenn were interesting, but if the intention of the gallery is to completely reorient the discourse on how Africa is communicated to the public, what are the projects in motion for the exhibition (and by default its message) to reach greater audiences, in a sustained, consistent way?
Especially at the beginning of the meeting, when Kate Quinn displayed a slide with a calendar detailing the progress and end-dates of multiple projects throughout the museum, it hit me how much work is planned and undertaken to both develop and maintain the museum's gallery space across the institution for years in the future. I can't yet imagine the full logistics involved in the running of all of these operations, let alone the entire organization itself, but I feel I have gained a more visceral understanding (and sympathy) for the limitations of the institution and appreciation for the breadth of coordination involved in performing all of these operations, seemingly simultaneously.
Later, during Dr. Zuberi's overview of the narrative of the exhibition, I understood more clearly the intent and purpose of certain themes and threads of the future exhibition, especially the highlighting of continental and international connections of the collections. From conversations earlier in the day, I was having difficulty trying to visualize how the exhibit was to negotiate discussing the continental connections of the objects (through form, material and function) while still portraying each collection's individual cultural legacy. After the presentation, I understood more clearly that the vision was to highlight similarities and differences equally, and start "fluid conversations about cultures and people," which is obviously long overdue in the mainstream, popular discourse about Africa.
What I came away from the stakeholder meeting was a greater sense of the vision (both physical and conceptual) of the exhibition, but one thing I did not have a strong impression of was how the exhibition intended to scale up its presence outside of the immediate walls of the institution. The discussion of the online course and utilization by academic engagement for UPenn were interesting, but if the intention of the gallery is to completely reorient the discourse on how Africa is communicated to the public, what are the projects in motion for the exhibition (and by default its message) to reach greater audiences, in a sustained, consistent way?
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